SHOWS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THEIR PARENTS TOO : How in the world does Lynn Thigpen do so much--and get it all right?

Lynne Thigpen has started carrying a pocket atlas in her purse for self-defense.

“I have to!” says The Chief from PBS’ geographic game show “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” “Kids are always coming up to me and challenging me.”

Thigpen, who also has a recurring role on ABC’s “All My Children” soap opera, says she’s learned quite a bit from “Carmen San Diego.” And apparently so has her audience.

“One of my favorite stories,” says Thigpen, a two-time Daytime Emmy nominee, “is when a parent said, ‘I’m glad to meet you, but you cost me a lot of money.’ The father thought his son would ask for a Nintendo for his birthday, but instead asked for a multicolored giant atlas--and they cost a lot more. I thought that was really neat.”

Speaking from her New York apartment, Thigpen explains that “Carmen” shoots a seasonal 55 episodes in a mere six weeks, sometimes four a day. With roles in series, film, stage and radio filling in the other days, she acknowledges it’s a stressful schedule.

In her hometown of Joliet, Ill., she was set to be an English and speech teacher, but a surprise graduate school fellowship--in acting--changed the course of her life. She moved to Manhattan 24 years ago.

Acting was always an interest, says Thigpen, who is 46. In a bout of spontaneity, she left school after one semester and headed out to the Big Apple. “It was definitely youth,” she says of her sudden move.

“For a black actress, the ‘70s were a time of the black musical,” Thigpen recalls. “I learned to sing very quickly.” While she “could carry a tune,” she had never studied voice.

She won a role in the original 1971 production of “Godspell” (she repeated her role later on film) and went on to do “The Magic Show,” “Working,” “Fences” and “Tintypes,” for which she received a 1981 Tony nomination.

The nomination, she says, “put my name out there,” and she decided to stop singing and start acting. “It took awhile for it to turn around. You can always open your mouth to show you can sing, but anyone who hires you in your first real acting role takes a leap of faith.”

Leaps of faith became Thigpen’s trademark. “I ended up going out for a lot of roles that weren’t even originally for women, let alone black women,” she says, explaining how she won a role in 1982’s “Tootsie”: “I read the stage manager’s part and I thought, there’s no reason that couldn’t be a woman.”

“Sometimes,” says Thigpen, who is single, “you have to make your own luck, create your own way of people looking at something, instead of the traditional mold.”

Roles in feature films--”Lean on Me,” “The Warriors,” “Bob Roberts,” “The Paper,” and the recent “Just Cause”--as well as TV series and movies, round out her career.

“I’d done musicals, television, film, stage and radio,” says Thigpen, a regular on “A Prairie Home Companion,” which can be heard on National Public Radio. “But I hadn’t done children’s programming, and I got into it. I really enjoy this [“Carmen”]. If I make my living doing this, I’m ahead of the game. I love it.”

But Thigpen, who’s also the associate artistic director of New York’s Circle Repertory Theatre, says that being so spread out “is a very tough balancing act,” and recalls flying to Los Angeles on a Sunday to shoot “L.A. Law” on Monday and taking the red-eye back to shoot “Carmen” Tuesday morning. Around that same period in 1992 her evenings were spent at the Manhattan Theatre Club starring in Athol Fugard’s “Boseman and Lena,” which won her an Obie Award.

The actress finds “Carmen,” now in its fifth season, “amazing. I had the computer game myself and enjoyed it, but I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn it into a show.”

What’s best about the show is, “it teaches kids to get excited about the subjects and they’ll seek out the information themselves.”

She calls The Chief “a cross between Maxwell Smart and the principal who scared you in grade school.” Thigpen attributes “Carmen’s” success to “kids really want to be challenged at that age. Other shows have them throw pies at each other. They’re always writing me, and often end with: ‘Ask me a question and I’ll tell you the answer,’ ” she says. “Now that, I find rewarding.”

“Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” airs weekdays at 4:30 p.m. on KCET and weekdays at 8:30 a.m., with repeats Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on KOCE. For ages 5 and up. “All My Children” airs weekdays at noon on ABC.